


The Rhythm of the War Drums

by Louffox



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is ignorant, Cecil is Inhuman, Eldritch Abomination Cecil, M/M, Protective Cecil, possessive Cecil, sleeping over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-30 00:12:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louffox/pseuds/Louffox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shot songfic loosely based on Pet by A Perfect Circle. Cecil watches Carlos sleep, thinking about their relationship, how much he means to him, and thinks about the things he's done to protect him from the power of the Vale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rhythm of the War Drums

_Don’t fret precious, I’m here. Step away from the window._

_Go back to sleep._

 

            Cecil’s gaze traced the contours of his boyfriend’s sleeping face meditatively. He was so perfect. Carlos, _his_ Carlos. Beautiful, like his own desert snowflake, and so deliciously fragile, susceptible to melt away at any moment. Transient and delicate, with his otherworldly preconceptions about what ‘normal’ life was like. Naïve to the way things existed in the reality of Night Vale.

 

_Lay your head down, child, I won’t let the boogeyman come._

 

            Even as he slept, he was shielding Carlos from the Vale. He was the longest surviving outsider for deity-knows-how-long. He didn’t know that others had come before him, he’d wrongly assumed that people just didn’t come of the Vale. Nobody spoke of his predecessors, who lay beneath the ground or scattered in the winds or in other dimensions or states of existence. Dead, or close enough.

 

_Counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums._

_Pay no mind to the rabble._

_Pay no mind to the rabble._

 

            Cecil had spoke to Old Woman Jose late into the night about it. She had laughed as the Angels had topped off their wineglasses and marveled at the irony of the situation. Initially, when Carlos had first moved in, he’d been preoccupied by his science. Too busy to take much notice of the resonant, velvety alto on the radio who professed his love for the whole town to hear. The only notice he paid to it was of vague embarrassment and irate dismissal. And all the while, behind his back, the Vale struck at him and Cecil struck back.

 

_Head down, go to sleep to the rhythm of the war drums._

 

            Carlos had been embarrassed and annoyed with Cecil’s love, ignorant of the fact that his life hung in the balance and Cecil was the only thing that shielded him from the void.

 

_Pay no mind what other voices say. They don’t care about you like I do. Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils._

_See, they don’t give a fuck about you. Like I do._

_Just stay with me. Safe and ignorant._

_Go back to sleep._

_Go back to sleep._

 

            But it was more than that. Cecil wasn’t just protecting him, he was taking the blows in his stead. The void wanted Carlos, and when it couldn’t get him, it became greedy and vengeful and struck out at the obstacle defying it. Striking at Cecil. Luckily, Cecil was far from helpless. In fact, he was perhaps the only being able to defy it and live- and continue to defy it. The only other beings who could resist the abyss were Old Woman Jose and perhaps the eternal scouts, though they could not become enamored with beauty as Cecil did, as their eyes were sewn shut in their transcendence to eternal scout. And Old Woman Jose’s power was mediated by the Angels, who were not only her protectors and her servants, but her stabilizers. Her shocks, to keep the whole Vale from shaking itself apart. So, technically, Cecil was the only thing that could prevent Carlos’s demise.

 

_Lay your head down child, I won’t let the boogeyman come._

_Count bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums._

_Pay no mind to the rabble. Pay no mind to the rabble._

_Head down, go to sleep, to the rhythm of the war drums._

 

            Carlos turned in his sleep, muttering incoherently, and Cecil realized in his absentminded musings, the shadows had followed his caressing gaze and had been petting Carlos’s face and hair and neck lovingly. He thoughtfully loosened the tendril that was enjoying the scientist a bit too much, wound tightly around his neck in a possessive gesture, recalling that necks had throats, throats had air, and air was necessary for Carlos to live. It probably wouldn’t bruise. But his bedmate continued to stir lightly until Cecil sensed he was waking up. In preparation for his eyes opening, he wrapped the form Carlos was most comfortable with around himself, resuming the humanoid glamour that held the most appeal to his scientist. He sighed lightly as it covered his dorsal and ventral eyes, and his extra extremities manifested as mere lines of color running down his human form’s arms and shoulders.

 

_I’ll the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons._

_I’ll be the one to protect you from a will to survive and a voice of reason._

 

            His eyes finally opened and Cecil silently marveled at their perceived depth. He knew human eyes did not have actual depth, and were just a network of randomly colored tissues that acted as an aperture for the pupil- he’d checked to see if they went anywhere, and had been disappointed to find them just as substantial as all matter was. But their coloring was nice, and was dewy and detailed enough to provide the illusion of depth. There were two main sections of Carlos’s irises, Cecil had observed. An outer ring of burnt umber, and a sort of sunburst of lighter ochre around the pupil. The entire affair was flecked with tawny slivers. The eyes opened, pupils swollen from the lack of light and from material desire. Cecil smiled and lay his hand gently on the center of his chest, the rest of his body following to cover Carlos’s.

 

_I’ll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices done._

_They’re one and the same. I must isolate you._

_Isolate and save you from yourself._

 

            The pleasure derived from the relatively simple physical act always surprised Cecil. And the pleasure derived vicariously from his partner was equally overwhelming and impressive. Carlos thought he just had a high libido- really, he was just curious about it, and was always interesting in new ways. And every time, he learned more. On top of all that, nothing was as fulfilling as pleasing his Carlos. Anyways, with the daily fight he waged to keep Carlos’s heart beating and his consciousness in this plane of existence, he figured he deserved some payment. Though, just being able to lay his gaze of that Adonis-like masterpiece he’d claimed was quite payment enough.

 

_Swaying to the rhythm of the new world order and count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums._

 

            Carlos never knew what Cecil did for him. He wasn’t sure why he kept it a secret from him. There were a few reasons, but none really large enough to pose a problem. He wanted Carlos to believe he was human, for fear of being abandoned. He didn’t want Carlos any more afraid of the Vale, his home, than he already was. Revelation could (and had, in the past) lead to madness, and Cecil found the audible snap of a person’s sanity nauseating and disappointing. So he explained the occasional marks away. The scientist understood how dangerous and strange Night Vale was, and he understood that there were many things he didn’t know about, so he accepted the explanations without many questions.

 

_The boogeymen are coming. The boogeymen are coming._

_Keep your head down, go to sleep, to the rhythm of the war drums._

 

            Carlos dozed back off, tired and sated, and though Cecil did not require rest, he remained in bed at his side, arms wrapped around his trunk and legs tangled with his. ‘Cuddling’, he knew it was called, and the physical presence of another was comforting. All the while, hidden on the visible plane that Carlos could perceive, the battle raged on as the Vale fought the foreign thing like it was a tumor or an infection, and Cecil exerted his will to negate the attacks. When he changed the plane of his gaze, he smiled at the fires and tides and inky appendages that he wielded against the maelstrom of the Vale. A hurricane of chaos spun around them, and it was by Cecil’s might that they remained in the eye and out of its grasp. It could not take him. He was Cecil’s. Nothing could take him away. Not the tiny yet powerful (though powerless relative to the will that Cecil wielded) city beneath the pin retrieval area. Not the hooded figures. Not Strex Corp. (Cecil feared Kevin, but even Kevin wouldn’t risk existing in the same dimension as Cecil again- the only connection they’d made was both being recipients of the same email, and the resulting paradox had been galvanizing.) Not the Angels, or the librarians, or the glowing lights, or shadow energy, or wheat and wheat by-products.

 

_Stay with me, safe and ignorant._

_Just stay with me._

_I’ll hold you and protect you from the other ones_

_The evil ones don’t love you none._

_Go back to sleep._

 

            Carlos considered him his boyfriend. Cecil considered him to be his. And nothing would ever, ever take him away. Everything tried. But Cecil had never fought and lost before. (Which made it doubly important that he protect Carlos- not only did he love him, but he had a reputation of being unbreakable, a reputation that he wasn’t about to let go of. But mostly, it was Carlos.

            He would never let him go.

**Author's Note:**

> the song is Pet by A Perfect Circle. Absolutely fantastic band, and one of my favorite songs. I highly recommend it. It's a bit heavy for nerdy Cecil headcannons, but if you imagine anything abomination-y or eldritch, then it fits exactly their relationship. Or, it does in my humble opinion. Leave a kudos, cause it makes me feel good!  
> Check out my tumblr: fauxfoxfanatics.tumblr.com


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